When the Sun Goes Down
by Haelwyn
Summary: Two students, given a simple assignment - Give a report on King Macaan's early reign - uncover the secrets of their nation, and the world beyond their world, which lead them to the very heart of the war between Parakka and the rest of the universe.


Yay Broken Sky fanfic! That novel series definitely needs more love. And more selling over here~. I really want to know what happens in the end, but I can't find the last book (or books? I don't even know how many I have to read to finish it) anywhere . Therefore I will have to resort to creating my own fanfic of it. Hochi and King Macaan are, so far, the only characters that come from the book, the others are made up by moi. Enjoy! Read, review, add to story alert, do whatever you want with this fic :D.

-.-.-

**Peace**

Mako took off for Hochi's stables the moment class ended. "Took off," almost literally, seeing as he practically flew out of his chair, out the classroom door, and taxied down the hallway of their Academy, and "the moment class ended," perfectly literally as in the moment the words "You may leave" were spoken by their professor.

Sima could only sigh in the figurative dust cloud he left in his wake. Bowing to their noble professor, who could only smile and shake his head at Mako's departure, she headed for the library, where she knew she would make "their" assignment for history class.

"A report on the early history of King Macaan's rule, huh? There would be plenty of material on that in the public library. After all, all the books there were probably by the king, accounts of his great unification of the Dominions," she thought to herself.

She exited the Academy and walked the sub-urban streets of Tusami City, absorbing the sights and smells around her. "After all, if it weren't for his complete authority over the Dominions, who knows what kind of tribal war we'd be caught up in now. Warlords are such messy people. Kings do things much more efficiently. But still, there isn't much material over what happened before King Macaan became King…"

She reached the library doors several minutes later, still deep in thought, running a rough outline in her mind of how their report should run…

"Sima, good to see you again," the librarian said in a hushed voice from where she sat behind a wooden counter.

"Good day to you too, Madame," she replied, bowing. She was called Madame by everyone, young and old alike. She refused to be called anything else. "It's been a while since I've had to look up a book here."

"Ah, I see those notes you've been making have saved you a lot of visits here," the stately lady said, pushing her glasses up her sharp bridge of a nose. "That's good, though I do miss your company sometimes. Now then, what can I do for you today?"

"I need information about King Macaan's early rule," Sima said, reading from her notes.

"No problem with that," the librarian replied, nodding her head. "Any history textbook could tell you. Let's take a look at our shelves, shall we?" she said, standing up and walking around her counter. She was a tall lady, at least a head taller than Sima, who was the tallest her other female classmates. Her brown hair, contrary to most expectations of librarians, was not long and tied in a bun, but cropped short. She wore a simple blouse and slacks, the seat of which looked more polished, owing to the hours she spent sitting at her famous counter. Sima didn't know how old she was, just that she'd been the librarian since she could remember.

"Yes, I know, in fact, I've already read all of the textbooks here," Sima said, smiling to herself, while struggling to keep with her. "I was hoping to look at some other material."

Madame stopped abruptly, and Sima nearly bumped into her. "Other material?" she asked, turning her head sideways to give Sima a sideways glance that was both scary and cool-looking.

"Yes, Madame, other material that might provide additional information," Sima said, nodding her head. "If you happen to have them."

"And what might this other material be?" she said, turning her body slowly to match the angle of her head, which could now face her fully, towering as she was.

"I," Sima said, smiling broadly. "I was hoping you would be able to recommend some. I feel as though having additional information than those customary in children's textbooks would impress our professor. I do want to have exemplary grades to be able to get into a high scholarly specialization," she said, putting on her best goody-two-shoes-student face.

"Hmm, other material I'd recommend. Well, for you, maybe I do have something," Madame said, turning around again and walking slowly towards the back of the library. "Wait for me here," she said.

Sima blinked at her, then let out a deep breath. She walked around the shelves a bit, eyes wandering over the many books and scrolls that the Tusami Public Library had to offer.

After a few minutes, she heard Madame's footsteps approach her.

"No," she said, shaking her head and dusting her hands off. "It used to be stored here, but it got transferred out a long, long time ago, by some very important people. I doubt that even I'd be able to see it again."

"Oh," Sima said, truly disappointed. "Then do you know where it is?" trying to find out more.

Madame remained silent as she walked back to her counter. "It's not something worth pursuing anymore, Sima. I suggest you stick to the material that your school recommends."

"Thank you, I guess," Sima said, walking slowly towards the student history textbooks as Madame remained at her post.

She decided to pick out some history textbooks, and went to check them out at the counter.

"Just curious, though," she said, as Madame stamped and signed the check-out cards. "What _were_ those files? Were they top-secret or something?"

"Between you and me, those documents were-," she said, as she pushed her books to her with a twinkle in her eye. Madame leaned forward, and Sima did the same. "King Macaan's war letters."

-.-.-

She came to school the next day with dark circles under her eyes. Her shoulder-length reddish-brown hair was messily tied up in a ponytail, and fronds kept falling in her face. She shuffled into the room, with a textbook and sheaf of papers in her arms.

"Whoa," Mako said, shifting a bit in his seat. "What happened to you?"

"I started working on _our _report last night," Sima said, stressing the word "our" in Mako's face as she walked past him. "There's still a lot of work to be done on it, you know?"

Mako laughed and stretched out backwards. "Relax, we've still got five days to finish it. People'll understand, our report comes up first. No one will mind if it's a mess."

"Oh, ha-ha all you want but I refuse to have to do an ad lib on the geography of the Dominions again because _some partner_ forgot to borrow the maps from the library!" she said, dropping her load onto her desk to his left.

"I did not forget those maps," Mako said, leaning forward and slamming his hands on his desk. "I just… didn't have them ready in time. And besides, I think it's really impressive how you can draw all the provinces from memory."

"You could've at least walked me to the library instead of just running off to those stupid wyvern stables everyday after class," Sima said, now standing right next to his desk and looking down at his face.

"Well I'm sorry if some of us have better things to do like work rather than slave away in some ancient dustbin with nothing to do but study!" he said, his voice rising.

"Ugh!" Sima scoffed and turned away from him, before slumping down heavily in her chair. She reached with both hands up to rearrange her ponytail when she sensed something on her right.

Her left hand still clasping her ponytail tightly, she pointed her index and middle finger to her right and took a deep breath, warmth creeping along her spine, as energy flowed through her spirit-stones, six of them, sky-blue: the color of raw _power_.

"Don't start that again," she said, throwing a malicious glance at the mischievous Mako, whose hands were together in a formation of power.

Mako burst out the breath he had been taking as his own spirit-stones, six of them as well, a bright apple green, filled themselves with power: the power of the wind. He clapped his hands together, and a small puff of wind came out as he let the Flow dissipate from his body.

"Fine," Mako said, leaning back again in his chair. "It was getting old, anyway. Old hag," he mumbled under his breath.

Another of their teachers entered the room, greeting them with a good morning and a pop quiz, and Mako could only groan as Sima smirked at him, letting her own energy calm down and dissipate.


End file.
